Jonathan Anderson’s Dior: Merging Raw Edge with Classicism

Collars embodied the split personality: one edge pressed and buttoned with couture precision, the other casually sprung upward. At Dior, Jonathan Anderson brings roughness into dialogue with polish

Jonathan Anderson’s minimalist-maximal Dior debut – chardin still-life gallery set establishes minimalist mood

Jonathan Anderson presented his first collection for Dior on Friday, 27 June 2025, transforming Paris Fashion Week Men’s into a watershed moment for the house. Staged inside the Hôtel des Invalides, the show followed his first appointment as artistic director of all Dior lines—women’s, men’s and couture—announced earlier this month.

Guests entered a restrained, gallery-like space: polished parquet, velvet-warm walls and just two small still-lifes by 18th-century painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Anderson called them “modest yet beautiful,” a deliberate rebuff to today’s overblown runways and a silent preface to the collection’s own push-and-pull.

Inside Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior collection: a dialogue between classic couture and subversive ease

What followed was a dialogue between insurgent experimentation and Dior’s ingrained classicism. Jonathan Anderson pitched his own playful irreverence against the maison’s formal codes, allowing tension—rather than harmony—to drive every look.

Collars embodied the split personality: one edge pressed and buttoned with couture precision, the other casually sprung upward, as though caught mid-gesture. Trousers alternated between relaxed, almost pajama softness and sharply tailored iterations cuffed high at the hem, underscoring the designer’s fascination with contrast.

At the heart of the lineup, an improbable trio—pristine waistcoat, crisp shirt and baggy jeans—threw Savile Row order against street-born ease, crystallising the collection’s thesis in a single outfit.

Dior Spring 2026 Menswear: Jonathan Anderson: the textile choices

Even accessories refused to conform: some ties hung neatly, others were looped back-to-front, inviting a double take. Volumes reversed expectations too—oversized trenches slipped over skim-cut trousers before switching to sculpted jackets above flooding wide-legs in the next passage.

Textile choices nodded to Victorian literature—dense twills and faille reminiscent of 19th-century novels—yet Anderson shock-treated them with pop-acid hues, as though an English schoolboy’s sweater had fallen into neon dye. Ultra-cropped waistcoats, relic-short and embroidery-rich, winked at the past while edging firmly into the present.

Weeks before the curtain rose, Anderson seeded the conversation with Warhol photographs of Lee Radziwill and Jean-Michel Basquiat, stamped with the Dior logo, and a teaser video featuring Kylian Mbappé—signals that the coming collection would place high art and popular culture on equal footing.

In sixty looks, Anderson balanced humility with bravado, classical rigour with off-kilter ease. The pared-back set made every gesture legible; the clothes, in turn, amplified the quiet stage—an elegant proof that duality, not compromise, can be the most powerful form of modern luxury.

Jonathan Anderson is no stranger to precision – imperfection and material honesty

If there’s one thing that’s been consistent over the years, it’s Anderson’s approach to clothmaking that expands beyond what was known and accepted before him. “Materials that remember the hand,” the raw imperfections in the garment that introduce a sensual dimension—to be touched, felt and experienced. Clothes that tell a story from way before they entered the store, or were even finished in the first place.

Anderson was always clear and bold in his expression, creating pieces that spoke loudly against the perfection and gloss of clothmaking. It was through this vision that we got to see the ceramic and hand-cracked accessories in Loewe’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection, pieces that created conversations around them. Anderson’s coats and jackets were fastened with ceramic buttons, intentionally cracked and slightly misaligned, raising the question of whether they should, in fact, be considered fashion.

JW Anderson Pierce Bag: Experimenting with conscious design

“Leather that ages” was echoing at the brand’s Spring/Summer 2024 Menswear collection. Instead of high-shine finishes, Anderson worked with naturally aged leather that showed creases, scuffs, and patina. The garments were made to look worn-in already, rejecting the idea that newness equals value. Whether it was his ceramic detailing and aged leather at Loewe or the clay-dipped knitwear presented at JW Anderson’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection, blurring fashion with sculpture, the designer never shied away from taking risks and staying true to his values.

The JW Anderson Pierce Bag with its pierced leather details: this trapezoidal leather shoulder bag featured a front flap pierced by a polished metal ring, creating a contradictory blend of minimalism and subversion. These pieces, once new and unusual, are now the staples in the designer’s portfolio and representation of his aesthetic vision of roughness and his dedication to conscious design.

This approach—never linear, often multidimensional—dates back to 2008 when the Irish designer introduced his first collection for JW Anderson at the age of twenty-three. Back then, the gender fluidity of the pieces, such as the men’s silken tunics shaped like bathrobes and trimmed in lace, blurred the lines of traditional male tailoring and was met with mixed feelings, even ridicule from the fashion world. The fluidity in his designs—this was initially made for a conscious use of fabrics—still new and unexpected, started an approach yet to be advanced during the next decade at Loewe, which he joined in 2013. This was a new page for Anderson, a field where he gained space to experiment with his vision, to test his creative freedom and step into unknown territories.

Jonathan Anderson brings gender fluidity to Loewe

At Loewe, Anderson started strong, though, featuring gender-fluid pieces, such as a T-shirt made of two silk scarves in his first menswear collection, which became the hot topic of London Fashion Week. In fact, the reaction was so strong that the designer considered quitting altogether at one point. It took years of continuously breaking barriers, challenging traditions and reshaping into what it is today—a protest against flawlessness and a “correct” way of presenting fashion.

There, working at Loewe, he expanded his curiosity into material culture, obsessed with craft, longevity, heritage and surface. It was a turning point: a space where he could test his instincts and shape a new kind of sophistication that valued asymmetry, rawness and the handmade over polish. The result is a body of work that feels both archaeological and futuristic, stitched with time, intuition and irreverence.

His vision marked a new era for Loewe (with no looking back)

Starting from a clean slate at Loewe proved revolutionary for both Anderson and the brand itself. This era birthed pieces that evoked mixed emotions in the public—surprise, hesitation and obsession. Anderson reimagined traditional forms with his Puzzle Bag, created with multi-panel leather construction forming puzzle-like facets. It was the architectural geometry and deconstructed seams that made it a shocking must-have.

Continuously, he pushed the boundaries of conventional high fashion by embracing imperfection and raw textures, such as the creation of the Flamenco Bag with its exaggerated ruffles. The iconic bag, which Anderson revived from the brand’s archive, had a cinched drawstring closure, gathered with thick leather cords that tie into dramatic coiled knots, evoking both flamenco dancer sleeves and raw handcraft. The bold colors and tactile finishes like suede and satin Anderson used for the bag gave it a sensual yet deeply organic elegance.

Over the past seasons, Anderson has pushed his obsession with raw materials even further. We saw him send models down the runway in weathered leather jackets designed to age and develop patina over time, which was a conscious rejection of high gloss and newness. Some pieces in his Spring/Summer 2024 menswear collection looked pre-worn, with distressed finishes and exposed seams, while others were constructed from crinkled metallic leather, mimicking the feel of foil or scorched earth. And even accessories told the story: chunky slip-on sandals crafted from aged suede, oversized tote bags with unfinished hems, and belts that looked beaten-in. Every detail made by the designer is deliberate, exposing the making, the wearing, and the passing of time.

Dior before Anderson: The brand’s slow dance with circular fashion

For a fashion house so deeply rooted in precision and polish, Dior’s path with circular fashion has been quiet and less revolutionary over the past years. But the small steps were there indeed, woven between the seams if you look close enough. Its approach has been more cautious and deliberate, aiming for a more conscious approach, and never being loud about it. For Dior, it was more about underpromising and overdelivering.

Last year, the Dior and Parley collaboration was the boldest move so far by a brand that has a legacy rooted in haute couture. We saw a collection of sleek swimwear crafted with upcycled ocean plastic—a surprising move by a brand that was never about eco-tech fabrications before. Then, it came up with a new strategy to seal the fragrance bottles with recycled caps, another gradual integration of lower-impact materials. And all these subtle moves were meant to be pristine, just like the core philosophy of the house itself. You can feel the desire to evolve, without unraveling the myth of the perfect finish.

Central figures who the designer took inspiration from—Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lee Radziwill, and Andy Warhol

Jonathan Anderson for Dior first sounded like mixing oil with water—an unpredictable pairing that was too volatile to imagine. But since the announcement, and with all the preparations for the first collection, it started to feel promising and even electric. The fashion house has been dropping cryptic hints, little puzzle pieces of Anderson’s creative vision for the new era of Dior, revealing three of the central figures who the designer took inspiration from—Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lee Radziwill, and Andy Warhol. This is an unlikely trinity that signals it’s all about both aesthetic and philosophical tension.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, the embodiment of what’s chaotic, untamed, and even a little wild

There was more to Basquiat than simply a New York City artist of the 80s—he was the embodiment of what’s chaotic, untamed, and even a little wild. He started to express his boiling creativity by doing graffiti in the streets of Manhattan, under the name of SAMO that stood for “same old shit.” Ironic, indeed, as this attitude was further translated in his neo-expressionist art that spoke the language of the untrained, the untamed, and the imperfect. His canvas was anything but smooth and clean—he painted on different objects, wooden doors, and even scrap materials. The final product? It was anything but finished, never smooth, often torn, dirty, uneven. But it did speak, with words, scribbles, repeated figures he would leave to reference Black history, jazz, boxing, slavery, capitalism, and art history.

Basquiat was raw and unfiltered, both with his art and the way he dressed, unpolished, imperfect, often feeling like he spent less than five minutes getting ready. His own fashion choices were about texture, contradiction, and emotional truth, like pairing designer suits with beat-up shoes or mismatched accessories. His lifestyle—chaotic, rich with contradiction, marked by brilliance and burnout—was mirrored in his art. He brings the bones, with rough textures, torn-up surfaces, canvas that looks like it’s been through something. Defaced, scribbled on, dragged through meaning, his work and style hint at what happens when clothes stop being clothes and start becoming records. A true embodiment of the subversive.

Lee Radziwill is all about establishment

If Jean-Michel Basquiat is subversion, Lee Radziwill is all about establishment. She is poise, precision, control. After revealing Basquiat as an inspiration for the upcoming collection, hearing Lee Radziwill’s name felt unpragmatic at first, but not shocking at all.

Often considered an American royalty, Radziwill was nowhere close to roughness and imperfection. The younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who then became a famous American socialite, dressed to perfection, her style much sharper, moodier, more European in its refinement. Every piece she wore was deliberate and precise, quiet but never shy. She became a longtime muse and client of Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and Valentino, securing her signature aesthetic in one word: precise.

While Basquiat was about the New York way of blending vintage tailoring with paint-splattered denim, Radziwill was all about monochrome in soft creams, sleek tailoring and elegant accessories. While Basquiat was defined by texture, contradiction and emotional truth, Radziwill was the definition of refinement, control, and precision.

Warhol becomes the bridge between the two, the vision of experimentation and taking risks. Together, this promises a new path for Dior, still with its elegance that is now more lived-in and honest.

Jonathan Anderson, a short biography

Jonathan Anderson is a Northern Irish designer shaping the future of fashion by looking closely at how things are made. At the helm of JW Anderson, Loewe, and now Dior, he’s become one of the industry’s most influential creative directors. What sets him apart is not just a taste for the unexpected, but a deep commitment to the physicality of clothes and his focus on materials that age, fray, soften, and surprise. Since launching JW Anderson in 2008 with a collection of hand-stitched menswear pieces that stirred both ridicule and intrigue, Anderson has embraced irregularity as a signature. His work favors texture over perfection, promising longevity and circularity. At Loewe, he revived the Spanish house’s leather heritage through reinvention, presenting the Puzzle Bag’s multi-panel geometry, the Flamenco’s coiled drawstrings, and outerwear designed to crease and wear with time. Anderson’s approach draws from the world around him, from flea markets and fringe artists to folk craft and furniture design, pulling references that matter.

Now at Dior, he continues honoring his instincts while carefully steering the legacy of the legendary French house into a future shaped by craft, consciousness, and restraint. In his Dior, nothing is over-polished; everything is meant to be touched, used, and lived in. It’s a return to fashion that respects where things come from, how long they last, and how deeply they can be felt.

Susanna Galstyan